Cold and wet weather made the Rocky Mountain 1200 a matter of survival, but the first man to finish the ultracycling event came back to Kamloops with a smile on his face.
Nigel Press, a Canadian Red Cross worker from Burnaby, arrived at the final control station on Wednesday just before 9 a.m., exactly 52 hours 52 minutes after he left the Kamloops Curling Club on Monday at 4 in the morning.
"I'm feeling really good, actually," said Press, who did his first Rocky, in 2008, in 54 hours. "Oh, I am (tired); I could fall down and sleep very quickly."
The Rocky Mountain 1200, put on by the B.C. Randonneurs, is a 1,200-kilometre timed cycling event that starts and ends in Kamloops, going through Valemount, Jasper, Lake Louise, Golden, Revelstoke and Salmon Arm along the way. Some riders gave themselves 90 hours to complete the journey, while others opted for 84 - either way, all riders had to be finished in Kamloops before today (Thursday) at 4 p.m.
Press, a 36-year-old Vancouver resident, left with the 84-hour group, and rode almost straight through. He had a two-hour sleep in Beauty Creek, on the Icefields Parkway, and also a few "catnaps," but barely left his seat otherwise.
He rode into Golden just before 8 p.m., on Tuesday, then went through Armstrong on Wednesday at 1:13 a.m., Salmon Arm at 3:20, and Westwold at 6:54.
And he did it on a bike that was sort of cobbled together for the Rocky.
"I have a custom bike being built and I was hoping I could use it in this ride, but it's a few months behind schedule," Press said. "This one is fine, worked well. . . . I just had to change the handlebars and borrow my girlfriend's wheels."
Where one finishes doesn't really matter in the Rocky Mountain 1200, which isn't a race, but rather a timed event.
So, even though Press finished first, he doesn't get any more reward than the second-place finisher, or any of the other finishers.
He did, however, get a beer just after he crossed the finish line, along with a few cheers from his mom and his girlfriend, and a celebratory text message from his sister.
He also got a lot of support from the volunteers along the way, something that didn't go unnoticed.
"The volunteers make everything possible - it's an amazing amount of work," Press said. "People spend their vacations to come here and help put it on, and it's amazing. Roger and Ali (Holt) did a phenomenal job organizing the event."
This year's Rocky has been like no other - as of last night, 50 of the 112 starters had dropped out due to the cold rain that pelted the riders between Kamloops and Jasper.
But Press, wearing his B.C. Randonneurs jersey, managed to battle through, and rode in relatively nice weather for the latter half of his trek.
He has but one thing to thank for his survival during the cold stretches:
"Wool clothing - two layers of wool," he said, with a laugh. "Whenever I go into the mountains, I wear wool."
A lot of people ride in randonneur-style events to prove somethings to themselves, and also for the camaraderie.
But it can get awful lonely along the trail, especially if you are way ahead of the pack, like Press was.
As of 10 o'clock Wednesday night, only three other riders had made it to Kamloops - Vancouver's Keith Fraser and Ken Bonner arrived side-by-side at 6:43 p.m., meaning the journey took them 62:43, while Frederic Perman of Montreal came in at 9:50 p.m., for a time of 65:50.
"I was hoping that Keith Fraser was going to catch up," Press said. "When I was in Lake Louise, the head-wind was so bad, I wanted to ride with him."
Finishing first is a nice reward for Press, a Canadian Red Cross worker originally from Kelowna, but simply finishing took some guts.
There was a time when Press had a few thoughts about dropping out.
"Once I got to Beauty Creek, I was so cold that I contemplated quitting," he said. "I've never seen it like this. The 90-hour group had 25 hours of cold, pouring rain. You can get really sick doing that - I'm sure some people got chest colds."
Of the 62 riders remaining, all were able to make it through the Revelstoke control station before it closed.
